Can't I put a variable name for sensor into the custom text notification message?

Apps & Clients
1

Hi everyone,

I had to copy everything from 22 devices to a new hub because the 16.9 update killed my zigbee radio…

Many of my sensors have identical monitoring rules, but the Notification message should say which sensor just went off. I believe I need the “Custom message” for the text push notification to be something like:

Motion at [sensor_name_variable]

And/or device name. (Aeon multisensor devices have a lot of sensors.)

Or a lookup table of responses relative to sensors, like

"Backyard sensor" motion rule lookup text = "Motion on the back lawn"

.
Is there anything like this?

My 9 Aeon multisensors have 3 to 6 sensors each, depending on which ones you’re interested in. And I have other sensors, too.

I see that there is the CoRE engine for example, but I don’t want to learn an entire ecosystem to get one thing done. This is a simple question:

Is there a way to put a variable name into the existing SmartThings rules schemes for multiple sensors?

Or something else/similar involving the pre-existing ST rules.

Thanks if you can help!

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@RedKnight so Core can definitely do it but there is a learning curve. If the processes are fairly simple there are two pretty good options in the ST marketplace under “Safety & Security” then either “Notify Me When” or “Smart Home Monitor - Security”. Notify Me When is a little simpler and you would just have to set an individual rule for each sensor with custom text you want sent. I also use some under Safety & Security when Notify Me want do what I need. Use the Custom option and set them up from there. If I recall correctly you need to do custom text for each as well one at a time. For example, I have a string of 4 notification that remind us if the garage has been open for 5, 10, 20, and 1 hour as well as one that tell us if the wine cellar gets too warm or too cold. Hope that help

3

Thanks Nathan,

Sounds like you feel quite sure and everyone agrees (if no one speaks up with something else),

It’s impossible to have something like variables for sensor/device names in ST’s built-in rules, then?

That there’s no simple way to have one rule for multiple devices while showing the individual device or sensor name?

Except a completely separate nuclear option like Core.

Hope I’m not belaboring the point. I guess I’m learning the limits of intrinsic ST functionality.

Thanks - Mike

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@RedKnight Maybe someone comes back with a way to do it but I don’t know of one. Core may be the exception but I am not even sure how I would set that up in Core. I am still a relative Core novice but one way to do it would be to set up: IF one of the sensors is triggered send message “Motion sensor activated in” followed by a series of child (not sure if that’s the right name) actions with this logic: IF it’s sensor #1 send “Basement”, IF sensor #2 send "Bathroom, etc. So the end result would be you get two message in a row.

Motion sesnor activated in
Basement

Not sure if that help and there is probably a more eloquent way to do it but one of the Core experts would probably need to chime in.

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Here is an example of how I use a variable to tell me if a battery in a sensor falls between two levels.
This is using CoRE.

BTW there is a mistake in my oiston above.
I had missed putting in an @ in front of my variable name which makes it a global variable which is what I had defined.

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